Ontario Passes Legislation to Cut Red Tape and Create Jobs

Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act will help businesses grow — and bring jobs and investment back to Ontario

TORONTO — Ontario's government is putting people first by taking another major step towards cutting red tape and reducing the regulatory burden facing job creators by passing the Restoring Ontario's Competitiveness Act today. The Act will reduce regulatory burdens in 12 sectors, helping job creators thrive, create and keep good jobs.

The Act will reduce the high cost of doing business in the province. This will make Ontario companies more competitive and attract new investments — growing jobs and the economy. The government is taking over 30 actions through the Act, along with regulatory changes, to cut business costs, harmonize regulatory requirements with other jurisdictions, end duplication and reduce barriers to investment. For nine months, the government has been hard at work, focused on keeping the promises made to Ontarians. The passing of this legislation will address specific regulatory issues that hold back expansion and investment in industries such as agrifood, manufacturing, construction and the auto sector, allowing for good jobs to be created and protected across the province.

"Bureaucratic red tape is squeezing the mom and pop shops across our province," said Todd Smith, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, who is the lead minister on reducing red tape and regulatory burden. "We're getting government out of the way of our job creators to help bring jobs and investment back to Ontario."

Passage of the legislation will take the government a long way towards delivering on its commitment to achieve two ambitious targets by 2020:

Saving Ontario companies at least $400 million per year in the cost of complying with regulations

Reducing the number of regulatory requirements affecting businesses by at least 25%.

"We're not against regulation — just overregulation," said Smith. "We're eliminating regulations that are outdated, inflexible or ineffective, or that duplicate federal or municipal regulations. And we're maintaining regulations that make sure that Ontario workers and families have clean air and water, safe products and safe working conditions. This is about cutting through the red tape holding businesses back, while maintaining the regulations that protect consumers, workers and the environment."

Quick Facts

A research paper from the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy in Toronto shows that Ontario has the highest cost of complying with regulations of any province — $33,000 per business per year. This is well above the $25,000 to $27,000 range in most other provinces.